Is Your Cover Letter Working As a Marketing Tool?

Your cover letter is one of the more important components to your job application. While the details on your job resume matter, they do not make one bit of difference until someone opens the file attachment to your email and reads it. In other words, they have to be convinced by the first message that you are worthy of a job interview. To make sure that happens, your cover letter should be treated as a marketing tool.

Are You Selling the Numbers?

One of the first changes to make to your cover letter is to focus on numbers. The numbers on your cover letter will get attention because, by nature, people like to quantify things. Consider your previous work experience. What have you helped to accomplish or accomplished yourself? For example, you may have helped to increase customer count at your previous position by 20 percent. You may have increased your sales rate by five percent year over year. Look for ways to showcase what you did personally first. But, don't stop there.

You are a team member. As a team member, you helped the company to accomplish various goals. In your cover letter, be sure to list the accomplishments of the company as you worked with them. For example, if the company grew by three percent while you were there, mention that in your cover letter. All of this works towards a marketing tool, helping the hiring manager to realize you are worthy of an interview.

Marketing Language

Go further than this. Be sure to leave out the begging, but use some marketing language to lure the hiring manager in. For example, you might say you are proven in a field due to your work experience. You may be able to convince the hiring manager to give you a job interview if you where the top of your class when it comes to the work experience or job skills you have.

The fact is, if your cover letter is boring, lacks interest, and is nothing but basic facts about your job skills and work experience, it is leaving something out. View it as a marketing tool. It is a way to bring people to you and to encourage them to want to work with you. To get a job interview, you first need a job resume to be read. Before that, though, you need to draw people in with a convincing cover letter.

Todd Bavol is the President and CEO of Integrity Staffing Solutions. Integrity Staffing Solutions is a national staffing firm assisting individuals and corporations in making the right employment fit. To view job openings in Warehouse, Professional and Administrative positions, visit the Integrity Staffing Solutions web site at http://www.integritystaffing.com.